Our Journey Begins

We have been practicing our centers in class. I want all students to be able to work independently during guided reading instruction.I wanted to give you a peek into our day, so here are a few pictures of students engaged in a couple of our reading centers.

Listening to reading

Read to Self

What a wonderful sight! When I told them that we would be working in centers again tomorrow, I heard a soft "yes!'. Gotta love it!

Baggie Books

Baggie Books were sent home today. On tomorrow I will be starting small group reading instruction. I am so excited about getting to know the children as readers. They were really excited to receive their bags. Please encourage your child to read and reread the books in their bags every night. These books are leveled and chosen especially for your child. Baggie books should come to school with your child daily.

Busy Week

We have a short but busy week ahead of us! Tomorrow is picture day. If  you wish to purchase your child's pictures, please send the money with them on tomorrow. Also, we will begin MAP testing on tomorrow. Our reading test will be on Wednesday beginning at 8:15 a.m.  Math testing will be Friday at 8:15 a.m. Please make sure that your child is well rested and on time. Finally, please don't forget Open House on Thursday. Hope to see you there!

T-Shirt Orders

Order forms for second grade t-shirts were sent home today. Your child should have placed them in their yellow folder inside their BIRD binder. Please consider making this purchase, We will wear these shirts on field trips, field day and any other school function we may have. All money is due by Friday, September 11th.

Word Study

We will begin our word study this week. Our work will stress the word study aspect more than the memorization of random spelling words. We will focus on one specific word family per week. Students will be given ten list words each week. With this approach, students are working with words to really gain an understanding of the assigned word family in hopes that they will really retain that knowledge and be able to apply it to unknown words in the future. We will also review "no excuse" words, or words they should already know. There will be a word study test weekly to see if we should move on to another word family or review the current. While there will be occasional word work homework, most of our word study will be in the classroom and reinforced during centers. Please contact me with any questions.

We Survived the First Week!

Our students did a wonderful job this past week considering that we all had to readjust our schedules from summer mode.  We will begin to slowly transition our days to include instruction as well as continue to review our rules and procedures. Also, I will begin to administer our district's reading assessment. This will assist me as I begin to group my students for small group reading instruction. Please continue to encourage your children to observe all rules and expectations in the classroom. I was so proud of my new second graders this week!

Best Day Ever!

We had a wonderful first day of school!  The students were on their best behavior and very receptive to learning new rules and procedures. Parents, thank you so much for making sure your child had their supplies. So many of you sent extra and believe me, it is greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to a fantastic year!